Got an idea? Want to Pitch It to win 25K?

A few years back SeeClickFix was launched into the stratosphere with the help of a competition called PitchIt.  Miles and I did some on stage tap dancing and we brought home a really big check for 25K.

If you are socially focused start-up who wants to change the world though new media than you consider pitching your idea at the wemedia PitchIt competition this year.  To follow are the details from the good folks at wemedia.

Got a big idea for a commerical or social startup? Bring it to We Media.

The 2012 We Media PitchIt Challenge is open to entries.

PitchIt helps would-be entrepreneurs turn their bold ideas for innovative digital media startups into something real.

PitchIt offers $25,000 in seed funding to each of two winners, along with online feedback and support from a global network of media, tech and social leaders, investors and digital creatives. We also connect our winners with a world-class network of mentors and advisers.

Hurry - the submission deadline is March 13.

To enter the challenge or vote and comment on submissions, go to: http://pitchit.ideascale.com.

A group of 6-8 finalists will pitch their ideas live before a panel of expert judges and the audience at the We Media 2012 conference on April 18 at Gannett, Inc., in McLean, Virginia. The public can also comment and vote on the ideas submitted online. The three ideas with the most votes will be named Community Choice winners.

Last year StartupSmart named PitchIt one of the world's top startup challenges. We're really not looking for fully formed startups. We're interested in brilliant ideas and people who can pull them off. If you've been sketching out plans for something wonderful, powerful and world-changing - or just thinking about it - then get going and submit your idea.

To enter the challenge or vote and comment on submissions, go to: http://pitchit.ideascale.com.

We can also use your help to spread the word. Here's a line you can copy-paste and tweet or share on Facebook:

Got a big idea? Bring it to the We Media PitchIt Challenge. $50k to help turn two big ideas into something real. http://ow.ly/8OI9U

PitchIt is sponsored by the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Our partners include Ashoka Changemakers, a global network of social entrepreneurs, and Gannett, Inc., the US media company that publishes USAToday.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to attend the 2012 We Media conference on April 18 (which includes the PitchIt finals), register now at:http://wmpitchit.eventbrite.com.

John Sutter From CNN Believes You're a Lazy Citizen...Just Don't Tell That to a Tunisian Fruit Vendor

I'll get to the subject line but let me give you a little background first.

Our friends at the City of Boston's Office of New Urban Mechanics have been working on a really cool project.  Its an app that enables sensors in your smartphone to detect and report potholes when your car hits a bump.  There are some technical hurtles but Nigel Jacob and Co. at the City of Boston are not deterred.  They're innovating and we hope they succeed. SeeClickFix is the largest provider of the open311 endpoint and we think that this tool would be valuable to our client cities like Washington, Richmond, Raleigh and Oakland.  If connected to Open311 the value would scale instantly.

While the app is potentially great, John Sutter from CNN's coverage was not. Here's John's opening quote, "Here's the problem with the whole Gov 2.0 movement: People are lazy.
Plenty of apps - SeeClickFix among them - allow diligent, digitally minded citizens to snap photos of potholes and send them to city hall. But that takes effort and, let's be honest, it's not something many people will follow through with."

Its shocking that 1 month after Time Magazine named The Protestor "Person of the Year" a CNN reporter would still believe that citizens are lazy. He also uses no facts to justify that you are lazy. Regardless of that here they are: When Boston.com used the SeeClickFix map to document potholes in the Boston area in 2009 over 700 potholes were reported in the first week.  This was by citizens not robots.  There were tons of issues reported because people had not been given the opportunity to vent these complaints previously. Boston has since been connected to SeeClickFix via Open311, and though the Boston Globe has not done a pothole story recently with a SeeClickFix map, we imagine that if they did similar results would occur.

Regardless of the fact that over 1/4 million people have participated in creating content on SeeClickFix and people are clearly declaring an end to apathy John Sutter is missing the bigger point. Robots will never replace the value of SeeClickFix because the value of SeeClickFix is not acting as a pothole crowdsourcer. The value of SeeClickFix is empowering citizens to take part in the smallest parts of their democracy by connecting them to their elected officials and neighbors in a meaningful way.

As a side note I do agree that there have been a number of problems with the Gov20 movement which could be documented separately but they have nothing to do with citizens lack of desire to engage.   Most of those problems have to do with the overemphasis of access to data and under estimate the ability to create it.  We work really hard to encourage governments to lay some of their older policies aside to make it easier for citizens to effectively communicate with them and there are many great city leaders who have taken the lead on this as well. The idea that local governments want to hear from their citizens is a relatively new one. See Bloomberg's 311 as first big city example. People have been disenfranchised from participation for quite some time, but there is not indication to us that the 'laziness' is doing anything shy of going away.

I've gotten a number of emails from friends and users astonished at the silly quote. More than anything it feels really really good to know that John is wrong and we have data to back it up.   (And those of us who don't drive cars will still have a place to communicate with their government even if the robots take over.)

Comments on local news sites: Public Square or Public Sewer?

For years I have credited the New Haven Independent with the high level of civic engagement in New Haven. They report on content that is truly local and interesting and accessible in a way that makes me and many others want to be involved. Melissa Bailey was the first person I bounced the idea of SeeClickFix off of. Paul Bass and team have inspired citizens to participate in ways that I did not think journalists were really supposed to. For the most part they made us proud of the place where we live regardless of its many flaws.

But aside from informing us they also provided an arguably more valuable function. One that did not exist in print or broadcast. They gave us a public forum for civic debate. For years I loved commenting on the New Haven Independent and the cast of characters that would fire comments back. When I commented it felt constructive and I felt like my thoughts were contributing to the improvement of New Haven. For many of the commenters of the Independent the comments were social in the way that we felt we were doing something valuable for society not just for our connections to others.

Over the past couple of years however the comments section became less attractive to me. I wondered if it was just me getting tired with the medium or if it was something in the moderation.  Many times I was annoyed by the ridiculously politicized and cruel nature of the comments and many times I was just bored with the redundancy.

It turns out that I was not alone and Paul has decided as of today that the comments are off indefinitely on NHI.   I'd encourage you to read that article here: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/time_out/  and comment 
and comment below here as you can not on the NHI.

Sadly I don't actually have any blog readers so the debate will likely be me and myself...but maybe that will be more multi-sided :)

Here's my take on all of this to fuel the conversation:

We have local news sites that do a horrendous job at creating meaningful debate by using poor algorithms for moderation. See WTNH.com. Those sites should kill their comment sections. It is not good for society and they need to shape up.

We also have sites like SeeClickFix which have had their trolls but have focused algorithmically to remove them. I think we've done a pretty good job but its really hard and we have the advantage of very topic specific content with a central goal of resolution. The site is constructive by design where WTNH is destructive by design. I won't comment further on that. You can form your own opinion if you own a television and visit their website.

And then there's the Independent. The Independent covers the tough policy level and societal level issues in New Haven and still managed to create relatively civil debate.  The problem here is that Paul and team are not computer assisted in their moderation as far as I know. They have content policies as we do at SeeClickFix but they depend on humans to be the first filter where other local sites with comments make the human the second filter.   I think that the Independent can go on with comments but they need a better algorithm. Algorithmic authority helps squash bias, if done correctly, and compensates for tired humans.

I hope that Paul and team will look for help to create this algorithm as it would be truly sad to lose the New Haven Independent to the folks who shamelessly and selfishly brought Paul and team to their knees with their hateful and destructive commentary.   If we can find a way to house people in real-life on our real-life public square, see Occupy NHV, I'm sure we can find a way to virtually house conversations in a civil way as well.